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Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early spring

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) - The world's most famous groundhog
predicted an early spring Wednesday, but wasn't willing to go out
on a limb to forecast whether the nearby Pittsburgh Steelers will
win Sunday's Super Bowl.

Punxsutawney Phil emerged just after dawn on Groundhog Day to
make his 125th annual weather forecast in front of a
smaller-than-usual crowd who braved muddy, icy conditions to hear
his handlers reveal that he had not seen his shadow.

Including Wednesday's forecast, Phil has seen his shadow 98
times and hasn't seen it just 16 times since 1887, according to the
Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle, which runs the event.
There are no records for the remaining years, though the group has
never failed to issue a forecast.

Two years ago, Phil's forecast also acknowledged the Pittsburgh
Steelers' Super Bowl XLIII win the night before. This year,
Sunday's game was mentioned in the forecast but no winner was
predicted between the Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, who meet
in Dallas for Super Bowl XLV.

"The Steelers are going to the Super Bowl," Mike Johnson, vice
president of the Inner Circle, said just before the forecast was
read, drawing cheers from the clearly partisan crowd gathered on
Gobbler's Knob, a tiny hill in this borough of about 6,100
residents some 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

The Groundhog Day celebration is rooted in a German superstition
that says if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on Feb. 2, the
Christian holiday of Candlemas, winter will last another six weeks.
If no shadow was seen, legend said spring would come early.

In reality, Pennsylvania's prophetic rodent doesn't see much of
anything. The result is actually decided in advance by 14 members
of the Inner Circle, who don tuxedos and top hats for the event.

The celebration usually draws 10,000 to 15,000 spectators when
it falls on a weekday, Groundhog club spokesman Luke Webber said.
The area was under a winter weather warning and while heavier snows
and sleet never materialized, rain falling in about 35-degree
temperatures made for a below-average crowd, said Webber, who
offered no specific estimate.